BAKU (AFP) -- Russia's President Vladimir Putin landed in the capital of former Soviet Azerbaijan on Tuesday for a two-day official visit to the oil-rich state aimed at improving regional relations, a Kremlin official said.

Putin is due to hold talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as well as jointly open a Russian-Azerbaijani trade fair during his trip.

Russia rents a Soviet-era radar station here that monitors the skies of the southern hemisphere for ballistic missiles while the United States has spent millions of dollars improving Azerbaijan's own radar network.

In its effort to balance the interests of the three powers, Azerbaijan has contributed troops to the U.S.-led mission in Iraq, described Iran's nuclear energy program as "its internal affair" and cut links to Chechen separatists with whom Russia is at war.